This is the latest EP from US deathgrinders Sulaco.
I’ve enjoyed following Sulaco over the years – 2011’s Build & Burn, 2018’s The Prize, and 2020’s The Privilege – so Black Cloud is most welcome here at Wonderbox Metal. Containing two songs, and with a duration of 8 minutes, there may not be much material here, but this is about quality, not quantity.
The first song is the EP’s title track, which only begins after almost a minute of sample. Once unleashed, the music showcases Sulaco’s individual blend of death metal, grindcore, punk, and noise rock. It’s all twisting riffs and mangled groove, almost as if it can’t hold its shape for longer than a handful of seconds before morphing into something new and angular. It reminds me of something like The Red Chord if they were more mathcore. Sort of. Either way, it hits hard and Sulaco once again demonstrate they know what they’re doing with their atypical composition.
The second song – Dying on the Pass – bursts out of the gate with ferocious aggression and an adversarial confidence. This time it speaks to me of the The Red Chord mixed with the essence of Pantera and the emotive power of Psycroptic, all wrapped up in Sulaco’s own personable take on extreme music. This song is a potent entity, effortlessly blending heaviness and brutality with atmospheric depth of feeling. It’s a great look on Sulaco, and as much as I liked Black Cloud, Dying on the Pass is the superior of the two.
Top work from Sulaco. These two songs bode well for the future – especially the second one – and I can’t wait to hear what they do next. Make sure you check this out.
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